Original Navajo Painting of a Buffalo Hunt [SOLD]

Jimmy Toddy’s place in the history of Navajo art is well accepted.  He certainly was one of the most important painters of Navajo life and culture of the 20^th century.  He has been known as Bea etin Yazz (Little No Shirt), a nickname given him as a young boy; and Jimmy Toddy, a name assigned to him by a school teacher and derived from a nickname in Navajo by which his father or grandfather was known.  His real name, in accordance with Navajo culture, remains unknown as a Navajo’s proper name is not divulged.  The majority of his paintings are signed with the name B Yazz, so perhaps he accepted the childhood nickname Bea etin. 

Jimmy Toddy was essentially a self-taught artist, his only early instructions being from the Lippincotts of Wide Ruins Trading Post where he spent most of his time as a child.  The Lippincotts were not trained in art instruction but their comments to him were beneficial.  After the end of World War II, there was a movement among some Native American artists to develop a more realistic approach to art than that taught at The Studio of the Santa Fe Indian School.  Paintings in this style were more illustrative and explicit in details of realistic life.

This painting of a buffalo hunt has aspects of The Studio style and the more realistic style being pursued by other artists.  Toddy has portrayed the hunt scene in realistic style but has ignored the sky and terrain features as traditional to The Studio style.  In doing so, he has produced the most powerful painting of his career.  It is always touchy to declare a work of art as the artist’s best ever accomplished but surely this painting must qualify among his best.

His buffalo, horses, and riders are beautifully rendered.  The palette is soft and pleasing.  There is no distraction of the viewer from the main focus of the painting.  According to Dr. J. J. Brody, “This new kind of Indian painting appealed to Jimmy Toddy as well as to several younger Navajo artists.  In the late 1950s, Toddy experimented in the new manner, but he also made paintings reminiscent of those he had done a decade earlier, and continued to make pictures in the Indian School Mode.” 

This painting is Toddy’s fantasy in the subject of Plains Indian life rather than to any actual experience in his life, but his treatment of it was handled with skill, control, and understanding.

Condition: appears to be in original condition and has been framed with archival materials and returned to the original wood frame.

Provenance: from the estate of Dorothy A. Hall (1922-2015) of Santa Fe, passed down through the family.  Originally purchased in 1953 from Kuykendalls in Tucson, Arizona, and stayed in the family from that date.

Reference: Yazz Navajo Painter by Sallie R. Wagner and J. J. Brody and Beatien Yazz